Le Marche'

Of course going to the market here in Paris is an incredible and memorable experience. I've seen several markets in Torino that are at least three times bigger than the one in South Pasadena. But here, it's the atmosphere that captures you immediately. First, the organization: a full course of banquets, all morning occupies the curbs for at least a mile in one direction and another mile in the other, until noon. Then after an hour everything is gone. The streets are clean (well, at least according to the city standards). This occurs four times a week in hundreds of different areas in the city. In my neighborhood the market is on Sundays so I don't really have problems with the strict policy of shutting down all the food stores during this day.  Second: the variety of products sold here is incomparable: from clothes to music, books, furniture, flowers, you can spend hours (and hundreds of euros, if you want) going around this place. 

 

It's not just the regular food you would expect in a supermarket: there are whole hares (with the fur still ...), beef tongue (good with veal in tuna sauce, as you in Torino), beef heart or beef (not my favorite because the meat is too hard but my cat went crazy), kidney (another of my least favorite food: they have a bitter aftertaste and are too soft when you bite them, kind of like eating worms...), and then mushrooms, truffles, endless banquet of fruits and vegetables, first fruits, candies. 

And the cheese? How can you resist? The prices are always a little higher than in a supermarket but the  freshness is unparalleled: you are there, with your eyes fixed on a Morbier when the smell of a Saint Nectaire hits you and you wonder which one should you choose.. there's not really any choice here, you just buy them all, one week after the other, so that by the end of your year here in Paris your curiosity is fully satisfied, your soul is in heaven and your liver is in hell!

   

No to mention  the banquet of fish: sea urchins, prawns, scallops and oysters at will. The problem with the oysters is that, unless you have a kitchen equipped with every tool necessary, you spend at least an hour trying to open them and when you finally put one in the mouth, you wonder whether all this effort was worthwhile.

 

 

 

Yes, that's my thumb! 

Here is Josh and his first experience with oysters: he didn't know whether to be more curious about their taste or disgusted by their appearance. The idea of putting in his  mouth something alive was just  repugnant and there was no way to get him to taste a single one. I would say that between eating an oyster and practice an hour of math, he probably would choose the latter. It wasn't necessary though. Giuseppe didn't need to be begged twice: as soon as  Josh asked to be relieved of this torture, he took the opportunity to gobble up the last oyster. 

 

I was too busy to take care of the wound on my thumb: idiot! I almost cut the tendon. What a stupid way to to put a permanent end to my aspirations of working again as a surgeon!